May 22, 2018

1. A SEASON OF DECISION REGARDING JERUSALEM. A GATE HAS OPENED… THE UNITED STATES, GUATEMALA, AND PARAGUAY GO THROUGH THE GATES!

One week ago yesterday, May 14, 2018, the 70th Anniversary of the birth of the modern nation of Israel, the United States followed through with its promise and moved its Embassy to the city which President Donald Trump last December 6th memorably declared to be the Capital of that nation, Jerusalem! That had been a courageous declaration…shortly after it was made, 128 members of the UN General Assembly supported a resolution condemning it and admonishing other states against following its example. And it was a courageous decision to push through with the promise others had failed to keep, bringing it to fruition on this historic date. In a taped message from Washington played at the ceremony, President Trump said:

Exactly 70 years ago the United States under Harry Truman became the first nation to recognize the State of Israel. Today, we officially open the United States embassy in Jerusalem. Congratulations! It’s been a long time coming… Almost immediately after declaring statehood in 1948, Israel designated the city of Jerusalem as its capital. The capital the Jewish people established in ancient times. So important… Yet for years we failed to acknowledge the obvious, the plain reality that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem… That changed last December 6, when we recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital… Today we follow through on this recognition and open our embassy in the historic and sacred land of Jerusalem. And we’re opening it many, many, many years ahead of schedule… We extend a hand in friendship to Israel, the Palestinians and to all of their neighbors. May there be peace. May God bless this embassy. May God bless all who serve there.

We believe that in this event we have witnessed a sacred “passing through” a gateway in the purposes of God for nations during this season. With the US taking the initiative, that gateway is clarified for other nations, and the blessings of the redemptive purposes of God within those nations may be activated. May 14th in Jerusalem was a blessed and sacred, as well as a joyous celebratory occasion!

Yet, even as Mr. Trump was asking God’s blessing the Embassy and those who will work within it, the enemy of nations was raising its false and deceiving banner to turn nations away from that blessing—in fact, to perceive it as a curse. The violent demonstrations on the Gaza/Israel border against the embassy move, driven by a murderous power which demands Jerusalem and every part of “Palestine” as its own, seized the moment and the imagination of much of the world. By mid-morning, as the Embassy ceremony was taking place in Jerusalem, the death toll of those seeking to breach the walls of the nation already had begun quickly to rise. In many news broadcasts around the world (and later newspaper headlines), viewers were being presented with a split-screen—one side showing a smiling Ivanka Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu among other rejoicing, celebrating people—all seemingly oblivious to the faces presented on the other side of the screen of desperate, screaming young Palestinians presumably being gassed or mercilessly shot down by Israeli soldiers. By the end of the day 61 were reported dead, over a thousand wounded. It didn’t matter that these scenes and many of the people in them had been set up for this very purpose, being seen to the world as victims brutalized by the Zionist regime; or that Israel was simply attempting to defend its borders being overrun by tens of thousands who believe fervently that she has no right to exist. Nor did it really matter that within two days a senior Hamas official would divulge that 50 of the 61 people killed had in fact been Hamas operatives. The images had made their mark. Around the world Israel was accused of frightfully “disproportionate actions,” of the callous destruction of innocent children, of war crimes. Of, as many of the pictures seemed intended to imply, enjoying a party for the moving of an Embassy which itself was the cause of the Catastrophe taking place on the border with Gaza.

Peoples and nations are being presented with choices related to alignment with what God has said regarding His land, His people and His holy city. One of these choices is a way of truth, the other one of deception. The warfare over these choices is fierce, the deception is subtle. Without the power and authority of God’s Word and the merciful light of revelation of the Holy Spirit among faithful intercessors within those nations, even believers are being deceived.

This revelation was certainly present in what occurred two days later, when President Jimmy Morales arrived in Jerusalem to oversee his nation Guatemala becoming second after the United States in opening its Embassy in Jerusalem! Among his party were a number of believing intercessors. Tiny Guatemala had in fact been the first country to cast its vote in the UN making way for the establishment of Israel in 1947, and second (behind the United States) to recognize the new state after it was born in 1948. Local papers commented on the role evangelical Christians in Guatemala have had in steering it towards the blessing of Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as its capital, and moving its embassy there.

And then on Monday, President Horacio Cartes arrived to officiate as Paraguay followed suit, becoming the third country to open its embassy in the capital.

2. THREE AMERICAS

Within one week, nations from all three of the Americas moved their embassies to Jerusalem:

One enormous and two tiny countries have come through the gates. They are still open.

PLEASE PRAY:

* That God blesses the embassies of the United States, Guatemala and Paraguay in Jerusalem, those who work within them, and the nations they represent.

* That God stirs up intercessors within nations to have His vision for Jerusalem, and to begin to intercede for their leaders to turn towards that city and bring their nations into alignment with what God says about its place in Israel and the world.

* That many nations will go through the gate, honoring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moving their embassies there.

* That God will bring those nations which make this decision into a unity and alignment which will allow them to be a blessing and strength to each other.

* That believers in the nations will have and make use of discernment regarding what they see in the media regarding Israel and Jerusalem—to be able to separate truth and faithful reporting from lies and deceptions of the Enemy portrayed as righteous.

NOTES FROM NORMA

I have lived in Israel 28 years! This past week I feel I observed the biggest shift in the atmosphere that I have ever experienced in my time here! When the American Embassy officially opened in Jerusalem, followed two days later by the Guatemalan Embassy, something spiritual happened. For 38 years, nations have had their embassies in Tel Aviv, while the government of Israel functioned in Jerusalem. But this past week two nations decided to take a bold step and agree with Israel, in the face of much opposition from the rest of the world. And now today (Monday). Paraguay moved their embassy here! When these moves happened, Israel realized in a way she hasn’t until now that she has friends. A spirit of long-time rejection that hovers over our nation has begun to crack. This is huge! We in Israel are aware of the price these three countries have had to pay and will pay for taking this extraordinary stand! In some ways they are already experiencing a taste of that rejection which has been ours. Yet they are doing it anyway. We are not alone! By their embrace, these three friends are touching and making a change in the very heart of Israel!